


i know exactly what i'm feelin'

by coronaofastar



Category: The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Aline has a plan, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, F/F, Fluff, Getting Together, Helen is too busy dropping things to notice this plan, Modern AU, flower shop au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 15:45:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13978326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coronaofastar/pseuds/coronaofastar
Summary: “Helen,” Aline said, and there was laughter in her voice now. Her hand gently pressed over Helen’s, right over the perfect silver bow. Helen looked up.Aline was smiling at her, a smile so soft with affection it made her heart skip a beat. “Would you like have dinner with me, Helen?”“Oh!” Helen stared. “But I thought - ”In which Helen has a crush on Aline, one of her customers, who may or may not have an Alec Lightwood-sanctioned scheme to do something about that.





	i know exactly what i'm feelin'

**Author's Note:**

  * For [helenblqckthorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/helenblqckthorn/gifts).



> If you are reading this anywhere but ao3 (or my tumblr, under the same username), it has been reposted without permission. Please let me know.
> 
> Happy belated birthday! It's less than you deserve, Rosey, but I do kind of owe you for sending you sad revelations all the time ;)) 
> 
> Title is from Hayley Kiyoko's Feelings, because of course.

 Helen had been on shift for no more than five slow, boring minutes before a cute girl walked through the door and thus made her life a whole lot better. 

 Not just any cute girl, either. Aline Penhallow, one of Blackthorn’s Briars’ more frequent customers. Helen had had the pleasure of looking up that first fateful afternoon just in time for a girl to slam a twenty on the counter and ask, “How do you say ‘you bitch’ in flowers?”

 “Um,” had been all Helen said, because on one hand she’d been trying to remember if there were any flowers that meant that at all, and on the other, the girl had been seriously pretty, with short black hair that stuck out in tufts and dark brown eyes the color of earth. 

 Thirty minutes later, she’d gotten the girl’s name (Aline), sent her off with a passive-aggressive bouquet of pansies and yellow carnations (the purpose of which, Aline explained, was a gesture meant in jest for her friend Alec), and, after making sure there was no one else in the shop, banged her head against the counter, cursing, trying to forget that she’d actually dropped a bucket of flowers because Aline’s shirt had ridden up just enough to show the soft strip of skin around her waist.

 Aline was back within two weeks, hunting for something for her mother’s birthday this time, and it wasn’t until they were contemplating different vases for the peach flowers Aline had picked did Helen ask, “So how’d your salty bouquet work out for you?”

 Aline blinked at her for a long moment. “You remembered,” she murmured, almost to herself, and then said in a much louder voice, filled with fond exasperation, “He went and pressed them. For bookmarks. _And he sent one to me._ Who the _hell_ does that? I know he understood that bouquet, the little _shit_ \- ”

 Another two weeks within that exchange, Aline was back looking for flowers for her cousin’s promotion. After that was Father’s Day, and after that...Aline became somewhat of a regular. Sometimes she showed up just to chat. One time she brought Helen hot chocolate. Occasionally she bought bouquets of the most ridiculously colored flowers for “self-appreciation”. Helen could never figure out whether she was serious about them or not.

 Today, instead of coming straight to the counter, Aline stopped to check out a bucket of violets, then looked over the selection of roses. Not a casual chat day, then.

 “Hi, Aline,” Helen said cheerfully. “Looking for something special?”

 Aline’s head jerked up, looking slightly flustered. “Erm, yeah. I wanted to get something special for a friend, but I’m at a bit of loss. Help me?”

 “Any meaning you’re going for?”

 Aline shook her head. “I just want her to like them.”

 “Hmm.” Helen stepped out from behind the counter, scanning the flowers with a critical eye. “Well, tulips have been pretty popular lately? Or personally - well, I’m not sure your friend would like them, but I love camellias. Half a dozen in blush pink would be lovely if you’re going for something simple.”

 “Sounds beautiful.” Had Helen looked over at that exact moment, she would have seen an incredibly sappy look on Aline’s face. “I’ll get those, then.”

 “You got it.” Helen carefully picked out six perfect blossoms and carried them over to the counter. It was, somehow, only then that she noticed what Aline was wearing: an oversized, long-sleeved, forget-me-not blue sweater dress that looked incredibly soft with knee-high black boots. Her mouth went dry. 

 Be still, her heart. She fumbled the flowers and nearly tripped. Thankfully, Aline was looking the other way, which meant Helen had time to retreat behind the counter, hoping she wasn’t as flushed as she felt.

 “You look great today, by the way.” Then, for fear that Aline might misunderstand and think Helen meant she didn’t look great most of the time, “I really like your outfit.”

 Aline actually blushed. Helen hadn’t seen her blush before. “Thanks. I’m, uh, planning to ask someone on a date, so.”

 “Oh, so that’s what this is all about.” Helen’s heart clenched painfully. She cut a length of silver ribbon and began tying the bouquet.

 “Yeah.” Aline was shy all of a sudden. “I really like her, and I’ve been meaning to for a while now.” 

  _She._ Another girl.

 “Well, give me the details! Come on, now, spill.”

 Fantastic idea, Helen! Excellent idea! Ask your crush for details on her crush! That’s not going to break your heart at all!

 “Oh, I don’t know if there’s that much you don’t know,” Aline said. “It’s this girl I first met a few months back. She’s blond, has, like, legs for days, and she’s really sweet and funny and - ”

 Helen was not listening. Helen was tying the perfect bow because Aline deserved nice things and it would have been incredibly unprofessional to give in to the petty urge to make the bow just a little crooked. “Uh-huh,” she said, out of courtesy. “She sounds lovely.”

 “And I was thinking - ” Aline sounded tentative and uncertain, “ - that maybe she’d, um, like to have dinner with me tonight?”

 “That’s a good way to ask,” said Helen absently, tugging on the stem of a camellia so the blossoms were all even. 

 There was a brief silence.

“Helen,” Aline said, and there was laughter in her voice now. Her hand gently pressed on top of Helen’s, right over the perfect silver bow. Helen looked up.

 Aline was smiling at her, a smile so soft with affection it made her heart skip a beat. “Would you like have dinner with me, Helen?”

 “Oh!” Helen stared. “But I thought - ”

 Aline’s smile became something closer to a grin.

 “ - you were going to...ask out that...blond girl you...oh. _Oh._ ” Helen looked down at the neat little bouquet she’d just put together, and - look, she could have said a dozen different things. She could have said _Oh, wow_ or _That was actually pretty good_ or _UH, HELL YES,_ but instead, what came out of her mouth was an incredulous, “Hang on, did - did you ask me to put together my own bouquet?”

 “It seemed like a good segue? Alec said it was a good segue. But then again, he did...fall down the stairs after his first kiss...” Aline frowned, as though suddenly realizing that Alec may not have been the best person to ask for romantic advice, and then sheepishly produced a brown paper bag. “I also have a cake pop.”

 “Just one?” teased Helen, taking the bag from her.

 “We could have cake pops for dinner, if you want. But you kind of have to say yes first.” She looked at Helen with wide, hopeful eyes. “So? Would you?”

 Helen probably had the widest, stupidest grin on her face. She didn’t really care. “I’d love to, Aline.”

 Aline blinked, looking suddenly startled. Like a sneezing cat. Helen found it adorable. “Wait, really?”

 “Really,” Helen confirmed, pulling her cake pop out of the bag.

 “Is it because of the cake pop? Like, no one ever says no to cake pops.”

 “I didn’t say yes to the cake pop, I said yes to the pretty girl,” Helen told her, and bit into it, grinning, as Aline blushed for the second time that day.


End file.
